Hat blocking apparatus



Aug. 29, 1950 J. LUCKOW HAT BLOCKING APPARATUS Filed Aug. '7, 194'! INVENTOR. JOSEPH LUCKOW- Attorney Patented Aug. 29, 1950 HAT BLOCKING APPARATUS Joseph Luckow, New York, N. Y.

Application August 7, 1947, Serial No. 766,988

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to the art of hat blocking, and, particularly, to improvements in hat-blocking apparatus.

The invention contemplates novel, simple, rugged, and inexpensive apparatus arranged to apply and to maintain pressure upon a plurality of hat blocks between which a hat blank or like piece of felt or other material is inserted for the purpose of forming the same as a result of drying while under pressure between such hat blocks.

As is the well-known custom in the hat trade the blanks, often of felt, are placed between forming blocks after the blank has been suitably steamed, and these blocks are brought together under considerable pressure with the blank between them, the pressure being often derived from a weight set upon the uppermost block. A variation of the practice is to clamp the blocks together with the steam-softened blank between them, and to permit the blank to dry, and so become permanently for-med; but most known forms of clamps must be tightened upon the work b a screw-motion; and the present invention contemplates apparatus which not only obviates the use of weights but is also essentially an adjustable and selflocking clamp which may be employed to apply and to maintain pressure upon an assembly of hat blocks by the simple throw of a lever.

Further the apparatus of the present invention, once adjusted in accordance with the height of a given assembly of hat blocks, may be employed in repeated operations to form hat blanks each like another, and to apply and to maintain a common pressure to all of a series of such blanks.

Further the present invention contemplates hat-blocking apparatus easily adjustable to a variety of heights of hat-block assemblies, so that the apparatus may be conveniently employed to block a number of blanks each of a number of different hat shapes.

Also the apparatus of the present invention is capable of being used to apply and to maintain pressure against a variety of assemblies of hat blocks wherein the uppermost block may or may not be required to be forced toward the lower block or blocks in a vertical direction. This {feature is of considerable importance, as will be realized, in edging and otherwise forming the brim or crown of womens hats.

While the invention contemplates apparatus particularly suited to the hat-making industry the same apparatus may be used in reblocking existing hats. The apparatus of the present invention is suited for mounting on such ordinary work surfaces as are common to hat-making and hat-blocking establishments; it may be easily These and other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description and from the drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of an embodiment of the invention, showing an assembl of hat blocks, with a hat blank between them, in that relative position with respect to the apparatus which would obtain immediately after the pressure upon the assembly and blank had been relieved; Fig. 2 is a detail, from the angle of view of Fig. l, of parts including an adjacent to a self-locking toggle, more particularly described below, showing the toggle unlocked; Fig. 3 is another detail, from the same angle of view, but including additional parts, of the toggle and adjacent elements, showing the toggle in locked position; and Fig. 4 is the section indicated by ili in Fig. 3. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are double the scale of Fig. 1, and each is partly erased to reduce the figure.

With reference now to Fig. l, which shows the entire apparatus from the side, I is a base, which may be conveniently a suitably heavy disk of metal, having an upper planar work surface 2, and, to one side, e. g., the rear, a hub 3 arranged to support vertically a rod 4.

A cantilever 5, preferably a substantial block of metal, bored at 6 to receive the rod 4 and to slide up and down thereon, extends outwardly from the rod 4' over the work surface 2; a set screw 1 having a knob 8 to facilitate manual adjustment thereof is provided for the purpose of locking the cantilever 5 at a predetermined height above the work surface 2 0n rod 4.

Secured to an end plate 9 and to the outer end of the cantilever 5 by means of four screws l0, l0, l0, ID, are two similar U-shaped members ll and I2, and each has a bent portion arranged to provide a foot to be applied against the end plate 9 and to be engaged by two of the screws I ll. Fig. 4 clearly illustrates the method of securing the two U-shaped members II and I2 to the end plate 9 and the outer end of the cantilever 5.

The bent portions providing feet for the U- shaped members are designated [3 and 14 respectively. The two members H and I2 are so mounted on the end plate 9 that the U-shaped portions of each combine to form a single U- shaped bracket extending outward from the end of the cantilever 5 as clearly seen in Figs. 1, 2, and 3.

A pair of nearly half round straps l5 and i6 secured by a rivet i! to the lower extremities of the U-shaped members ii and i2 on the outsides of said members carries asuitable bushing I? (see Figs. 2, 8, and 4.) through which is slidably received a vertically disposed rod is. The rod I9 is drilled and tapped at its lower end to receive a screw it. A nut 2i serves to lock the screw 2% with respect to the rod l9, and plainly the screw, which is an extension of the rod, may be adjusted effectively to lengthen or shorten the rod. At the lower end of the screw 29 is a ball 22 which is received rotatably within a socket 23 of a bell-shaped element 2% which serves as the member actually to contact the top of an assembly of hat blocks when the apparatus is employed to apply and to maintain pressure thereagainst. The bell-shaped element 2d may or may not be hollow, but the bottom portion 25 thereof is provided with a spheroid surface so that no opening is exposed below, such surface being relied upon to contact a variety of shapes of blocks.

At the upper extremities of the U-shaped members ii and i2, and on the outside of such members, are pivotally mounted a pair of similar parts 26 and 2?. A rivet 28 serves as the common pivotal mounting. The main body of each part (25 and 2'5) is offset from the point of the pivotal mounting (at 28) so that each part is provided with a heel through which another pivotal mounting (which may be another rivet) passes at 29, and each part is effectively a bellcrank. Each part is bent twice outwardly from the two pivotal mountings so that the flats of the parts are brought in contact to form 2. lug to be received within a socket in a suitable handle 30.

The upper end of the rod i9 is drilled at 32 to receive a pin, or rivet, which serves as a pivotal mounting upon the upper end of the rod IQ for two yokes E53 and one on either side of said rod, and above the straps l5 and it. Each yoke connects the upper end of the rod iii to the pivotal mounting at the heels of the parts 2% and 21, as shown in the figures.

Obviously, as shown particularly in the comparative positional views of Figs. 2 and 3, when the handle 3% is positioned as in Fig. 2 the rod i9 is raised, and when the handle 3!) is positioned as in Fig. 3 the rod it is lowered, and, consequently, the bellshaped element 2 is accordingly raised and lowered. The axial shift available in the rod 89 by means of the operation of the handle 3% is of course a constant. It been shown above how the effective length of the rod 59 may be changed by means of the screw 29, and how the effective uppermost and lowermost positions of the bellshaped element may be further changed by cans of the set screw 1, knob S, and slidable cantilever 5.

When the handle 39 is positioned upward. and backward from the lowermost position indicated in Fig. 2 it will be understood, of course, that the bellshaped element 263 hangs freely on the ball 22 of screw 2t; but if the handle so is brought downward and attains the position of Fig. 3 after the bottom portion 25 of the bellshaped element 2 5 is in tension against objects between itself and the work surface 2, such tension is automatically maintained as the toggle comprising the yokes 33 and 36 is axially centered with the rod 19. To prevent an overthrow of the toggle two lugs 35 and 36 are provided within and to the fore of the U-shaped members H and 52, there being one lug on each member, each lug being alike except that each is opposite hand to the other, the extremity of each lug being bent to form a stop for the toggle (as shown in Fig. 3). The bent ends of the two lugs 35 and 36 are seen from the front of the apparatus in Fig. 4. Fig. 4 shows the parts of the toggle in the same position as does Fig. 3.

In blocking a hat blank, for example, the operation of the apparatus is well understood from Fig. 1. On the work surface 2 I show an assembly of blocks, in which 56 designates a bottommost permanent assembly of blocks operating as a single block and arranged to shape the upper side of a hat blank, and 5i designates an interior crown block. In the figure the forming operation is assumed to be complete. The formed blank, which may be readily followed in the small sectional portion of the figure, is designated as 52, and is shown to be secured to the lowermost permanent assembly of blocks 56 b a cord 53, in

the usual manner.

The adjustment shown in Fig. l for the cantilever 5 is such as would accommodate the block assembly shown in the drawing. Before the operation which is shown in Fig. 1 to have been completed, the cantilever 5 is properly positioned on rod :1, and locked by m ans of the set screw 3. The adjustment sought is of course th t suitable to the constant throw of the rod it with respect to the block assembly to be used. Final adjustment may he made after'trial throws of the handle 3i? by lengthening or shortening the effective length of rod is by means of screw To those skilled in the art it will be understood that the adjustments are made with the bottom block or bottom assembly of blocks free of the hat blank so that the depth of throw of the upper block with respect to the lower block, or assembly, may be properly gauged so that the adjustments may accord therewith.

It will be understood from the foregoing that where one adjustment has been fixed with re spect to a given set or assembly of blocks that the apparatus may be employed thereafter to duplicate its initial operation, and to form alike a series of hat blanks of like characteristics.

I claim:

1. hat blocking apparatus, a base having a planar upper surface for supporting thereon an assembly of hat blocks, a frame mounted on base, a rod reciprocable in said frame toward and away from the base, a handle terminating in a bell crank, the inner end of the crank of the said bell crank pivoted to the frame,

a link, said link being pivoted at one end thereof to the outer and free end of the crank of the said bell crank and the other end of the link pivoted to the rod, and a bell shaped element mounted on the rod, said link and said bell crank constituting a toggle means for reciprocating the rod in the frame toward the base upon rotating the handle on the inner end of the crank of the bell crank to lock the bell shaped element against a hat block assembly supported on the base and away from the base to unlock the bell shaped element from a hat block assembly supported on the base.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, said rod having at its lower end a ball, said bell shaped element having a socket for receiving therein the said ball and said bell shaped element having a spheroid bottom for the purpose of translating pressure to a variety of hat block shapes from said rod.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, said frame including a vertically disposed member and a horizontally disposed cantilever slidably secured on the vertically disposed member, said rod recip- 10 6 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 217,519 Fanning July 15, 1879 881,625 Segschneider Mar, 10, 1908 971,566 Sarkett Oct, 4, 1910 1,953,041 Card Mar. 27, 1939 2,065,077 Kiwacl Dec. 22, 1936 2,363,982 Meltzer Nov. 28, 1944 

